North Carolina State plays a basketball game tonight that will impact the top tier of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings, one that will be televised nationally by ESPN.

But there will be no “College GameDay” crew perched courtside, no last-minute analysis from Digger Phelps or Bob Knight as the Wolfpack trots through pre-game warmups.

And of far greater significance, there will be no despised rival as the opponent, no Duke or North Carolina to turn the stage brighter, to send the energy and emotion burning hotter.

For Scott Wood, N.C. State’s mental approach and motivational level form part of the challenge waiting at Virginia.

“Even when the lights are off, you’ve still got to go full tilt and get the job done,” the senior swingman said. “You’ve got to go into the next place and play with the same intensity. You’ve got to get them all done, keep the pedal down and keep moving and get better.”

N.C. State is 1-3 on the road this season and its last two games away from Raleigh have ended in narrow, court-storming losses at Maryland and Wake Forest.

Tonight figures to be a struggle of wills between teams tied for second place in the ACC loss column.

The Wolfpack, coming off its 91-83 blitzing of North Carolina, leads the ACC in scoring (79.8 points per game), while Virginia, with its pack line defense having yet to give up 60 points in league play, is the ACC’s stingiest squad (allowing 51.1 points per game).

N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried called his team’s dominating first half from Saturday night, in which the Wolfpack unleashed in transition and raced ahead by 23 points, its best start of the season.

That the victory against the Tar Heels, while plenty meaningful, became the uneven, blowout-that-wasn’t — N.C. State’s lead swelled to 28 in the second half before shriveling to five in the final minute — left at least a little something to be desired.

“When you get them down 28, you’ve got to try to get them down 48, that’s just the way the game works,” Wood said.

“The first half was the real State,” point guard Lorenzo Brown said. “The second half, I don’t know what we did. If we can get two halves, we would be great.”

That has been a familiar refrain around N.C. State of late.

Last week, the Wolfpack built a first-half lead of 16 points on Wake Forest and a rout seemed all but arrived, before melting away into a mess of foul trouble and disjointedness that served to inspire the Demon Deacons’ comeback.

“Hopefully, though, we’re back on track,” N.C. State power forward Richard Howell said.

Tip-off

Who: No. 19 N.C. State (16-4, 5-2) at Virginia (14-5, 4-2)

When: 7 tonight (ESPN2)

Where: John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, Va.

Series: Virginia leads 81-58 and has won four of the last five meetings

Tip-in: N.C. State is 0-4 at Virginia since John Paul Jones Arena opened